I was privileged to be asked to graphically record at an event at St Bartholomew’s Hospital recently, where a colleague was speaking on the importance of compassion. As he spoke I contemplated how to ‘draw’ ‘Compassion’ and was struck how hard it is to describe, never mind ‘draw’ emotions.
It’s a bit like LOVE ..how do you describe ‘love’? The love for your partner, love for your children, your friends, love of food or love of music? We all have our own thoughts and indeed, feelings on this tiny but momentous word. Love is something we describe in very personal ways and therefore it is hard to evoke appropriate images such a small word.
So my dilemma? How would you draw ‘compassion’? How do you describe it? It is a part of the NHS Chief Nurses 6Cs messages- those being competence, communication, commitment, care, courage and compassion. All these ‘C’s have been defined as being key to offering the best possible care the NHS can to patients , carers and families. The audience at the event described compassion in many ways, linkage to care they had received, thoughtfulness, generosity of spirit , time and thought, people being ‘human’ was another description. What I decided to do as to draw an ‘interaction\ between two people and to record some of the wonderful descriptions and stories people shared. The results are shown below. I hope I managed to get the essence of what was being expressed.
I hope I could convey the feelings that were expressed, and so for compassion, I strive to be as compassionate as I can and expand my skills in conveying the emotions we feel.
COMPASSION – an easy word to write, harder to draw, but thankfully for many , it is the emotion ,the feeling the’thing’ that is easiest to just do!
The Graphic World of Michaela Finegan 